Category: Contentions

Complaining does not accomplish any good for our spiritual lives or for the cause of Christ. It brings down efforts, stifles enthusiasm, causes dissatisfaction, discontent, and division. Complaints directed toward God are a sin on par with idolatry and fornication. Christians are not to grumble against one another lest we be condemned. Instead, we are to do all things without complaining and disputing.

The Scriptures firmly associate strife and faction. We are told in 1 Timothy 6:3-5 that those who “…do not consent to wholesome words…” are “…obsessed with disputes and arguments over words….” These things, we are told, lead to “…envy, strife, reviling, evil suspicions, useless wrangling….” We are also told in Titus 3:9-11 that we ought to “…avoid foolish disputes, genealogies, contentions [eris], and striving about the Law….” This command is immediately followed by the command to “…reject a divisive man after a first—even a second—warning.”